David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, would like to pass on my condolences to all those who have suffered during the pandemic, those who have actually been incredibly sick and, particularly, family and friends of those who, relevant to this discussion, have suffered this illness as their last illness and passed on. In fact there are 25½ thousand people in Australia that have suffered from it. Unfortunately there have been 525 deaths, with 335 of those in the aged-care system—328, the vast majority, in residential aged care and seven in home care. As has been outlined, it has been worst in Victoria, unfortunately, and we have responded quite appropriately. You need to focus on the big picture on how Australia has responded, not just in aged care but in the whole nation's health system, to the pandemic caused by COVID-19.

The other thing you have to remember is that the aged-care system, and residential aged care in particular, in common parlance often called a nursing home, is by no means meant to be like a hospital or act as a hospital. They are the homes of our nearest and dearest—our parents and grandparents—and they are meant to be homes. It's not meant to be lino floors with the smell of chlorine and disinfectant everywhere. But when the pandemic happened, we saw what rolled out and what the outcomes were in overseas countries with health systems similar to ours. The health minister has outlined the vastly different outcomes. There were 13 high-risk places in Victoria. That's been isolated down to three. The numbers are coming down, fortunately, in Victoria.

Regarding the aged-care system, the assertion that we have failed as a federal government because we have regulatory and funding responsibility, that we manage every day-to-day incidence—it is a shared responsibility. Obviously, the aged-care facilities themselves have responsibility, as is outlined by the minister in the federal-state agreement in the national pandemic plan announced back in February, and then the aged-care plan in particular, in March, there is state health ministry responsibility and regulatory oversight for a lot of the clinical and public health measures. There have been six evolutions of the plan, both the initial pandemic plan and the aged-care plan. There have been funding payments, which I can go through, totalling over $1.3 billion—the first one, $445 million, back in March. There's been access to personal protective equipment. There have been training courses, webinars and all sorts of updates. No. 5 and No. 6—I could go through the list extensively. There's unlimited assistance for COVID affected places. We have upgraded testing. We have 450 Commonwealth healthcare workers. We have ADF people helping with testing and tracing. We have myriad other supports for both mental health for the elderly and for all Australians. We have upgraded all our hospital intensive care facilities. We have support for remote—for Indigenous elders, for metropolitan elders—you name it. There is a comprehensive plan.

In comparison, and we don't want to gloat, the outcome in Australia is exceptional compared to what's happened in like countries—in Scandinavia, in Europe, in the UK, in the US and in Canada. I know people want to score a hit somewhere and claim a win, but this is one area in which people on the other side need to be fair. I will call out mistakes on our side if I see them, but I don't see much in this. It is a really good outcome for our parents and grandparents who are residing in aged-care facilities. One death is too many, but we have gotten on top of the problem and the mortality rate of 0.18 per cent is really a low rate, compared to what we have seen elsewhere.

It is a community outbreak in Victoria. That's where the disease came into aged care. It walked through the door in people— (Time expired)

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